From the pestilence which contributed to the downfall of Rome to the dancing manias of medieval Europe, the aristocracy’s fashion for wearing wigs and the role of typhus in the First World War, Hans Zinsser reveals just how disease and epidemics have shaped human history.
'A fascinating blend of scientific and historical research, humour and stimulating opinion on almost every subject of interest to this contemporary world' British Medical Journal
'A superb book... a classic work' David Bellamy
'In the course of his darting and discursive narrative his imaginations take him into strange places in human souls and philosophies' Observer
Hans Zinsser taught bacteriology and immunology at the universities of Stanford and Columbia before going on to teach at the Harvard University Medical School. As well as researching extensively into cholera, allergies and rheumatic fever, he was a pioneer in isolating the micro-organism that causes a form of typhus. To Zinsser, scientific research was high adventure and the investigation of infectious disease, a field of battle. He died in 1940.